The convertible hit Phillip Moreno so hard that it knocked him out of his shoes and lodged him in the windshield.

As he lay dying on the hood, police said, Sherri Lynn Wilkins kept going another two miles until other motorists swarmed her car at a traffic light and grabbed her keys.

Wilkins, who was charged Tuesday with murder and driving drunk, told police she struck the man after leaving work and panicked. Police said her blood alcohol level was more than double the legal limit.

Her arrest on a street corner between home and her job as a drug and alcohol counselor seemed to be a return to a dark past that Wilkins once celebrated leaving behind. The convict and recovering addict had recently gone back to school, gotten a job and was reuniting with her family, including a new grandchild.

"It's a really tragic situation for both parties," said her neighbor, Crystal Witherspoon. "I'm trying to understand it myself, because from what I knew of her, she was a kind-hearted person. She was trying very hard."

Tami Jimenez, a recovering alcoholic who worked with Wilkins, said the case serves as a bitter reminder for all addicts about the dangers of relapse.

She can be charged with murder, "a charge of murder under Section 188 upon facts exhibiting wantonness and a conscious disregard for life to support a finding of implied malice, or upon facts showing malice consistent with the holding of the California Supreme Court in People v. Watson, 30 Cal.3d 290." CA Codes (pen:187-199)

The convertible hit Phillip Moreno so hard that it knocked him out of his shoes and lodged him in the windshield.

As he lay dying on the hood, police said, Sherri Lynn Wilkins kept going another two miles until other motorists swarmed her car at a traffic light and grabbed her keys.

Wilkins, who was charged Tuesday with murder and driving drunk, told police she struck the man after leaving work and panicked. Police said her blood alcohol level was more than double the legal limit.

Her arrest on a street corner between home and her job as a drug and alcohol counselor seemed to be a return to a dark past that Wilkins once celebrated leaving behind. The convict and recovering addict had recently gone back to school, gotten a job and was reuniting with her family, including a new grandchild.

"It's a really tragic situation for both parties," said her neighbor, Crystal Witherspoon. "I'm trying to understand it myself, because from what I knew of her, she was a kind-hearted person. She was trying very hard."

Tami Jimenez, a recovering alcoholic who worked with Wilkins, said the case serves as a bitter reminder for all addicts about the dangers of relapse.

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